February 11, 2004

China To Increase Bird Flu Cooperation With Taiwan

China said Wednesday that it would be willing to cooperate with Taiwan in bird-flu prevention efforts - a potentially significant announcement for the island, which complained last year that it was shut out of global anti-SARS efforts because of Beijing's intervention.

Zhang Mingqing, a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, made the remark at a news conference Wednesday.

"An epidemic situation reporting channel should (be) set up between the mainland and Taiwan," the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing Zhang.

Last year, Taiwan asserted that China's maneuverings within the World Health Organization, a U.N. agency, kept it from getting the prompt international assistance it needed to fight severe acute respiratory syndrome. China is a member of the United Nations and Taiwan is not.

Taiwan and China separated in 1949 during a civil war. Ever since, Taiwan has operated as a sovereign nation much to the chagrin of the communist government in Beijing, which insists the island is part of its sovereign territory.